Bitrix24 CRM Review 2023: Best CRM for SMBs?

One of the most exciting features of Bitrix24 (in our opinion) is its seamless team collaboration capabilities.

With Bitrix24, you can take advantage of the following collaboration tools:

• Online meeting scheduling
• Chat & video calls
• Employee directory
• Time tracking
• File sharing

These features are particularly handy for businesses that operate remotely or have teams working from different locations.

We especially loved the built-in chat feature that allowed all of our team to communicate without ever leaving the CRM platform,

While we typically use Slack for most of our communication at SBB, we thought this feature potentially rivaled our chat platform of choice (which is saying a lot!).

Additionally, with the employee directory provided by Bitrix24, you can effortlessly add employee details, such as:

• Job descriptions
• Contact information
• Other essential data

Workgroups also offer an excellent way to create specialized channels or groups that can share specific content.

Lastly, Bitrix24 also boasts a fantastic time-tracking tool that enables you to easily monitor your employees' progress.

This tool allows each team member to clock in and out, see daily tasks and events, and choose whether they are out of the office or not.

Here's how the time-tracking tool looks (to give you a better idea).

Overall, when it comes to team collaboration, Bitrix24 is our go-to CRM for SMBs that value efficient communication and productive teamwork.

When it comes to project management, Bitrix24 has you covered.

Some project management capabilities of Bitrix include:

• An efficiency tracker
• Project automation
• Scrum team creation
• Worktime Tracking
• Workgroups

We'll walk you through our process of getting started with Bitrix24's project management.

For starters, we clicked the "create" button and were given a choice between the following two options—projects and workgroups.

We selected projects (although we used both quite a bit throughout our testing).

We were able to customize the following for our new project:

• Name
• Visual theme
• Project icon

From there, we chose the level of privacy for the project, added members, and we were rolling.

Within each project, we could easily view and add tasks, create polls, upload files, and view all the related messages.

We also loved how it was possible to bring over our scrum team to Bitrix24 through the project management feature.

Bitrix24 allows scrum integration from the following platforms:

• Jira
• Asana
• Trello

Honestly, Bitrix24 has some of the most in-depth project management we've ever seen. Since it's completely free to try out, we recommend you give it a try for yourself!

It's fantastic for SMBs looking to get organized and make sure all their teams are on the same page.

Just like everything with Bitrix24, the CRM software has a lot to offer (and we mean A LOT) in terms of contact management.

The platform offers a wide range of features designed to help you manage the following:

• Contacts
• Companies
• Signing parties
• Vendors
• Contact center

Each tab is essentially a separate hub designed to work together to streamline and simplify the contact management process.

For example, you can create a contact list that contains all of your clients' information, such as:

• Contact info
• Tags
• Notes
• Files

We tested the platform out by adding in some of our B2B affiliate marketing clients.

Here's how it looked from our perspective.

We were also able to create our own custom fields directly within each contact card, which we thought was awesome.

What's more—the CRM system also offers robust signing party management tools, allowing you to streamline your document signing process and ensure that everything is properly authorized.

With vendor management tools, you can easily manage your business relationships and ensure that all of your vendors are meeting your needs.

We've tested a lot of CRMs throughout the years, and honestly, Bitrix24 might just be the most comprehensive in terms of contact management that we've seen.

Another awesome feature of Bitrix24 is its powerful campaign creation capabilities, which enable SMBs to reach their target audience through multiple channels.

These include the following:

• Email
• SMS
• Messengers
• Voice

We got to work creating all four throughout our three-month testing period.

We were able to select from a list of many helpful templates for each channel (shown below).

We created a messenger campaign to inform our readers about our new newsletter called the Bonfire Field Guide.

Here's an example of the introduction message we created.

We were able to quickly create messages for each step in the campaign, including:

• Introduction
• Opt-in
• First issue
• Check-in

Then, with just a few clicks, we were scheduling and sending out messages left and right!

All in all, this feature was as powerful as it was intuitive! Two thumbs up from the SBB team.

Bitrix24's CRM offers a powerful ad creation tool that allows businesses to seamlessly create and manage Facebook and Google ads.

This tool offers an array of customization options, including:

• Ad type
• Target audience
• Budget

Additionally, the add creation tool provides analytics and reporting features that enable businesses to track the performance of their ads in real time, allowing for quick adjustments and optimizations.

With Bitrix24's ad creation tool, SMBs can accomplish the following:

• Reach a wider audience
• Boost engagement
• Drive more sales

Let's be honest—who wouldn't want to be a social media superstar? Well, even if that's not possible with Bitrix24, you can get as close as you ever could!

One of Bitrix24's standout offerings is its email template creation

Bitrix24 allows you to create, select from, and customize templates to streamline email communications, saving precious time and energy.

We use email to connect with the majority of our clients at SBB, so naturally, we took advantage of this tool quite a bit during our three-month testing period.

Here's an example of an email template we created to follow up with our affiliate marketing clients.

We especially liked how easy it was to add the following to each template:

• Text
• Images
• Social networks
• Code
• Footers

The whole thing took about 5 minutes, and we were able to send it off to tons of clients with just a few clicks.

So, whether you're looking to send a mass email to potential clients or a personalized message to a current customer, Bitrix24's email templates have got you covered.

And let's not forget, the best part about using Email Templates is not having to rack your brain for the perfect thing to say.

So if you're looking for a CRM that can help simplify your email communications, look no further than Bitrix24.

At Small Business Bonfire, we tested Bitrix24's inventory management features over the course of three months and were amazed by the results.

With Bitrix24's inventory management, you get access to many tools that allow you to accurately monitor your inventory in real-time.

You can accomplish the following with ease:

• Track the sales orders
• Transfers
• Write-offs

All we had to do to get started was enable inventory management (pictured below), and from there, we were adding products, tracking sales, and analyzing our business from a top-down perspective.

This feature is particularly useful for E-commerce SMBs that have a vast inventory and deal with a high volume of orders.

With Bitrix24's inventory management tool, you can efficiently manage your inventory, ensure timely deliveries, and ensure customer satisfaction.

Overall, Bitrix24's inventory management feature is a game-changer for SMBs looking to streamline their operations and boost productivity across the board.

Regarding task management, Bitrix24 is a force to be reckoned with. The amount of functionality and customization available to users is simply unparalleled.

With Bitrix24, you'll be able to easily manage all your daily tasks and appointments in one central location.

But what really sets this CRM software apart is the variety of ways you can view your tasks.

It's easy to view tasks in the following ways:

• Lists
• Deadlines
• Planner
• Calendar
• Gantt charts

Talk about a comprehensive approach to staying organized!

We created a task called "Enable WordPress Login for New Users." It took us about ten seconds to set it up, which we thought was awesome.

We also loved how we were able to create task templates, reducing the monotony of adding each task manually.

We created a template that we called "Onboarding Tasks" to make it extremely simple every time we needed to get new users on board.

Our takeaway from Bitrix24's task management is that it's honestly one of the best in the game.

There's a bit of a learning curve to navigating the complex functionality, but once you've got it down, it makes life so much easier.

At this point, you might be thinking that Bitrix24 offers a full CRM, an entire suite of tools for collaboration, and it doubles as a project management system—so there's probably limited website creation, right?

That couldn't be further from the truth, actually. Somehow, the CRM powerhouse offers a fully formed website creator (optimized for mobile right out of the gate).

And did we mention it's free? That's right, no hidden costs or fees.

So if you're looking to up your online presence game and create a beautiful, mobile-friendly website for your business, look no further than Bitrix24's website builder.

We thought this might be too good to be true, so we gave it a spin for ourselves.

We were able to navigate to the "sites and stores" tab and click "create." to get started.

Next, we were treated to some gorgeous templates (pictured below).

Throughout our testing, we utilized the templates quite a bit. However, to fully try out the capabilities of the platform, we opted to create one from scratch.

The whole process took about 30 minutes (due to a pretty steep learning curve). Here's a basic overview of what we ultimately came up with (in the mobile view).

At the end of the day, despite the learning curve with Bitrix24's website creation, the platform delivers a robust offering. The fact that it's free and offers a ton of customization is just the icing on the cake.

At Small Business Bonfire, we believe in working smarter, not harder (and sometimes harder—we can't help it).

Automation helps to do just that! Luckily, Bitrix24 offers automation in spades.

Some of the types of automation included are:

• Workflows
• Rules and triggers
• Smart scripts

Essentially, Bitrix24 allows you to automate any tedious task you can think of, from simplifying task management to empowering your sales teams to close deals faster.

For example, we were able to quickly create automation to notify the appropriate any time a new deal was created.

As you can see from the screenshot below, it worked like a charm!

Once we had this automation in place, we never missed a new potential partnership (as we got the notification on both desktop and mobile).

This is just the tip of the iceberg, though. During our there months of testing, we created dozens of automations to streamline the majority of our business processes at SBB.

All that to say—automation with Bitrix24 is out of this world. We recommend SMBs take advantage of the sheer amount of possibilities offered by the powerful CRM.

At SBB, we understand the importance of learning from your data. After all, how can you improve and scale your business without understanding what works and what doesn't?

Bitrix24 is here to help! The CRM software offers powerful reporting and analytics to peruse at your convenience.

Some of the analytics Bitrix24 provides include:

• Sales
• Clients
• Online store
• Call statistics
• Employee performance
• Inventory management

Here's an example of our sales funnel (illustrated by a color-coded graph).

Bitrix24's reporting and analytics make it easy to get a bird's eye view of your SMB.

It's truly all-encompassing when it comes to understanding your business from top to bottom.

So, if you want to stay ahead of the competition, Bitrix24's reporting and analytics are definitely worth trying!

If you're wondering about the lead management capabilities of Bitrix24, let me tell you firsthand that it's impressive.

Our team at Small Business Bonfire put this feature to the test, and we were thoroughly impressed by how intuitive and streamlined the process was.

One of the coolest aspects was the ability to connect with leads directly from their card through the following channels:

• SMS
• Chat
• Phone
• Email

It's hard not to be impressed when you see it in action.

But it's not just about convenience—Bitrix24's lead management capabilities empower your sales teams to connect with more leads and ultimately close more deals.

With its comprehensive lead tracking features and automation tools, you can easily manage your entire sales pipeline more efficiently.

Don't believe us? Try it out for yourself and prepare to be blown away.